FOUNDING PRESIDENT RETIRESDr. McArthur Announces Decision in Letter to Alumni

In letters sent to the alumni, faculty, and staff of Thomas Aquinas
College, Founding President Ronald P. McArthur has announced that he
will no longer be able to teach classes starting this fall. “The prospect
saddens me in many ways,” Dr. McArthur wrote, promising that he will
continue to pray “for the College, that it become even better, and that
God will look upon the school with even more favor than He already
has.” The College encourages all of its alumni and friends to keep Dr.
McArthur in your prayers.

While passing through Stilesville, Ind., on
the morning of July 20, rising junior Andrew Kentigern
Moore (’14) was struck and killed by a passing vehicle. Like other
Thomas Aquinas College students in the past, Andrew was participating
in the Crossroads Walk Across America, a 3,000-mile journey to promote
the pro-life cause. He was using his walking time, he said, to discern
a vocation to the priesthood, and he was praying the Rosary at the
moment that he was struck.

The College has also recently learned that Paul Meyer (’94) succumbed
to a rare and very aggressive form of cancer on July 10 in Tulsa, Okla.
In a very personal way, Paul was also a committed defender of the
unborn. He and his wife, Kimberlie, adopted
four children from China, so as to provide them a Catholic home and to
help promote the Culture of Life in a country that has state-mandated
abortions.

Please pray for the souls of both Andrew and Paul, as well as for the
consolation of their friends and families.

The
General Chapter of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) has
re-elected the Very Rev. John M. Berg, F.S.S.P. (’93), to a six-year
term as Superior General. Fr. Berg is the Fraternity’s third Superior
General, having been first elected to the position in 2006 at the age
of 36. The Fraternity includes 228 priests and 154 seminarians serving
117 dioceses in 16 countries. A society of pontifical right founded by
Bl. John Paul II in 1988, it has three pillars: fidelity to the See of
Peter, dedication to the extraordinary form of the Mass and all the
sacraments, and emphasis on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas as a
clear basis for presenting the Faith.

On Sunday, July 22, 128 rising high school seniors from around the country
and abroad flocked to Thomas Aquinas College for the annual Great Books
Summer Program. For two weeks they read and discussed works selected
from the masters of the Western intellectual tradition, including
Plato, Euclid, Sophocles, Shakespeare, St. Thomas Aquinas, Pascal, and
Boethius. They also participated in daily sports, hiking in the hills
surrounding the campus, and trips to the beach and cultural venues
throughout the region. It was a time of forging new friendships,
enjoying the give and take of rational argument, and pursuing truth by
the light of faith.

Judy and Jim Barrett have always looked ahead to the future. When he
was an active member of the College’s Board of Governors, Mr. Barrett
helped to establish the Legacy Society so that benefactors could
maintain their support of the College, even in the event of an
unexpected tragedy. Of course, having helped form the Legacy Society,
it was only natural that he and his wife would be among its first
members. “We couldn’t ask others to do it if we didn’t do it
ourselves,” says Mrs. Barrett. Or, as Mr. Barrett puts it in his
whimsical way, “Do you love the College enough that, even when you’re
in Heaven, you will keep on giving?”